Chinese surnames have a long history, from the totem worship in the ancient period to the 5662 modern surnames recorded today, which can be described as having experienced thousands of years of precipitation. It is also the oldest historical and cultural heritage passed down by the ancients to the present, as long as the Chinese nation still exists and the Chinese family still branches and leaves, the Chinese surname will continue to be passed down.
For Chinese, the surname is more than just one word in the name. It also represents the sense of identity with the family, the sense of belonging, and the inheritance of the family spirit, and also represents the place where a person comes from and where he belongs. Time precipitation and family meaning all give surnames a sense of heaviness, so no nation in the world values surnames more than Chinese.
There is no doubt that each of the more than 5,000 surnames currently found in the literature has its own surname ancestor. These ancestors have always been recorded on the first page of the family tree, or in the center of the family ancestral hall, and have been enshrined by the later clans for thousands of years. In fact, if you go back in history, you will find that these different surname ancestors, in the earlier times, the surname was actually unified. It is only because of various historical factors that so many surnames have been differentiated.
And this "earlier" surname, that is, the "Eight Ancient Surnames" at the beginning of the birth of Chinese surnames, now all surnames, all start from these eight surnames.
These eight surnames are Ji, Jiang, Jiao, 嬴, 妘, 妫, 姚, 姞, it is not difficult to find that these eight ancient surnames have the head of "female". The reason for this is that these eight ancient surnames were born in a matriarchal society, and since they originated from their mothers, it is not surprising that they have female characters.
And one of these ancient surnames has spawned hundreds of surnames. For example, the surname of Jiang, in addition to being linked to the people of the people, is also an important origin of 64 single surnames such as Lü surname, Xie surname, Qi surname, Gao surname, Lu surname, and Cui surname. At the same time, it is also the ancestor of 38 compound surnames such as Dongguo, Ziya, Yongmen, chunyu, etc., which can be described as countless descendants.
There is also the famous Qin Shi Huang's winning surname, which has developed to this day, and the winning surname has almost disappeared in the land of China, but it has become a more colorful surname. Surnames such as Lian, Xu, Jiang, Qin, Zhao, Huang, Liang, Ma, Zhong, etc., all have to be called Shizu by the surname of Ying.
It is worth mentioning that although these eight ancient surnames have derived thousands of surnames, this Ji surname is the oldest and most honorable, and the surnames derived from it are much more than the other seven ancient surnames, and even some ancient surnames are differentiated from it. Because of this, the ji surname is also known as the "ancestor of all surnames".
As for why the influence of the Ji surname spread the most, it was all because of the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty in that year. After King Ji of Zhou wu destroyed Shang and established Zhou, the surname Ji became the national surname of the Zhou Dynasty. Before the Shang Dynasty, China's surname system was actually not very mature, and most of the merchant names were named after the Tiangandi branch. For example, Emperor Xin of The King of Sui, his father was called Emperor Yi, and the real system of The Huaxia surname had to be during the Zhou Dynasty.
It was also during this critical period when the surname was formed that the surname Ji became the national surname on the land of China. After King Wu of Zhou established the Zhou Dynasty that year, a total of 53 princely states with the surname Ji were divided across the country. And the powerful and noble families in these princely states, without exception, are all descendants of the Ji surname. Such a strong vein naturally affected the trend of the formation of Chinese surnames, so the Ji surname became the first of the eight surnames in ancient times.
However, with the evolution of history, the surname Ji also returned to the same way as the other seven ancient surnames, and slowly disappeared into history. According to the demographic results of 2018, there are currently only 540,000 people with the surname Ji left in the country. Although this number is incomparable with the surnames of Liu Li, the King of Zhao, it does not affect it in the slightest that it is the ancestor of many large surnames today. Therefore, although the surname Ji is small, if you meet him now, this person will be unusual, and it is likely that he was the direct bloodline of Zhou Tianzi at that time.